10th anniversary tornado

• INTER-COUNTY LEADER • SPECIAL SECTION •

10

stories

of courage, hope and survival from the 2001 tornado

INSIDE Sunflfloowers sprouted up everywhere in the path of the June 18, 2001 tornado that devastated a good portion of southern Burnett County and a part of Washburn County.

It’s a point not overlooked by organizers of an event 10 years later, to the day, titled “A day of change - a day of thanksgiving,” who chose the sunflfloower as the focal point of its logo. The special event will focus not only on the power of the storm which was responsible for the loss of three lives and hundreds of homes and businesses, but the determination and spirit that led the rebuilding of lives and communities. This special section, produced by the Inter-County Leader, offers reflfleections of those who were there and a reminder of how two hours of a Monday evening in June changed the landscape and so many lives. In a year of record-breaking tornados across the United States, those of us who remember the June 18, 2001, tornado can only hope those who experienced similar tragedies can claim a recovery similar to ours.

“A day of change, a day of thanksgiving” will be held in Siren on Saturday, June 18. See schedule in Leader.

10 stories

A silent siren • 2 “The numbers that came to help ...” • 3 After the storm • 4 A Mayor’s declaration• 4 “We can and will recover ...” • 7 “Thank God for these people ...” • 7 A gift from the tornado • 8 A trip to Wadena • 9 “Where was God?”• 10 “More of Us” • 12

Also

Anatomy of a tornado • 2 The tornado’s path • 2 Siren hockey rink • 5 Just a few tales of survival • 6 “Troops on the ground” • 8 Sign language • 9 Before & after • 11 Irreplaceable loss • 12

A publication of the Inter-County Cooperative Publishing Association • 3rd section • Inter-County Leader • June 15, 2011

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10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

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Starting in Nebraska, a storm system moved into northern Minnesota and into Wisconsin the afternoon and evening of June 18, 2001, spawning an F3 tornado as it moved into Burnett County. The red dot indicates Siren. - Special photo

Anatomy of a tornado

Adam Imme and his friends were swimming in the St. Croix River west of Grantsburg the evening of June 18, 2001, when they noticed purplish clouds to the northeast, forming a funnel. “It was a strange sight,” he said.

What Imme and his friends were seeing was the birth of the largest of five tornadoes that were spawned from a two-hour-long storm system that began earlier that day with a line of thunderstorms along a cold front in Nebraska and Iowa.

The storms extended into Minnesota, and by 7:22 p.m. a smaller tornado touched down near the Town of Day, Minn., cutting a path eight miles long through mostly rural areas. Just 14 minutes later, a second tornado - rated an F0, made a brief touchdown near Tekamah, Neb. At 7:59 p.m., the first of two F0 tornados would touch down briefly in Harrison and Carroll counties, damaging crops.

At 8:06 p.m., the tornado Imme and his friends watched form touched down and began an eastward journey of 30 miles through southern Burnett County - spending just over an hour on the ground, through the towns of Grantsburg, Wood River, Siren and LaFollette and the Town of Bashaw in Washburn County.

The tornado that struck Burnett and Washburn counties was the outbreak’s only fatal storm, killing two, with a third fatality related. Total damages were estimated to be $10 million in Siren alone, most damage occurring in the village of Siren where most structures were destroyed, including a brand-new hockey arena. A total of 240 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and more than 100 firefighters helped rescue people trapped in buildings and clean up. Residents also reported cows and other livestock flying through the air during the tornado. - with information from wikipedia.com

A silent siren

Murphy’s Law struck the same time as the June 18 tornado.

Despite a tornado warning being issued, Siren’s only siren was malfunctioning as a result of a lightning strike in April or May. Reportedly the siren was so old, replacement parts were not immediately available.

No police officer was on duty that day in Siren. Police Chief Dean Roland (now Burnett County Sheriff) was on vacation and had just come out of the Timbers Theatre where he had seen the movie “Shrek.” He went home, turned on the news, heard about the tornado on the ground - and went into work mode, knowing he had to warn people.

What happened next was to become a chapter in author Brad Herzog’s bestseller “turn left at the trojan horse.”

“I used my PA system, lights, siren, yelling, telling everyone there was a possible tornado coming - I had about a twenty-minute warning,” he recalls.

“The tornado was rain-wrapped. You couldn’t see it. And when I finally did see the tornado coming out of the dark cloud, Siren’s silent siren. Following the torand I heard what sounded like the roar of nado, Milwaukee’s American Signal Cora jet, I was only about a quarter mile poration donated a new siren to the away. I tried to get to my house, but I village. - Photo by Gary King couldn’t make it. So I went around the corner and parked beneath an awning at the center of town ... at that time I remember thinking ‘Oh, my God. I forgot to take care of me.’”

Roland said two big dumpsters came flying at him as he watched a church building “pulsate.” Trees were exploding, roofs were coming off.

“There was a brief calm when I was right in the eye of the tornado. I went from total fear, saying ‘God don’t let me die’ to ‘Wow, this is beautiful’ - and then it picked up again.’”

Photos of the funnel cloud of the 2001 tornado as it traveled 30 miles across southern Burnett County, dissipating near Spooner in Washburn County. - from KSTP

The path

An aerial photo (right) shows the path of the tornado. Below, a map indicates the areas affected by the 150- to 200mile-per-hour winds over the tornado’s 30-mile path. - Special photos

Grantsburg

Wood River

Daniels

Siren

La Follette

Dewey

Bashaw

10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

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A grocery store parking lot became chief deputy Don Taylor’s office for a week, beginning the night of the June 18, 2001, tornado. - File photos by Gary King

“The numbers that came to help were amazing ...”

by Don Taylor

As we take time to reflect on the

events of the evening of June 18, 2001, and the days that followed we can only wonder. Wonder at the power of the storm, wonder at the response that followed the devastation of that mighty tornado that tore across Burnett County and into Washburn County.

It was nearly a week after the tornado before I had the opportunity to see much of the devastation. It was only then did I have the chance to drive around and marvel at the power that Mother Nature brought to bear, without discrimination, on homes, cabins and the landscape.

Like most memorable days, it started out routine, if fairly long. Deputy Steve Wierschem and I had ended the workday around 6 p.m. after walking around an 80-acre section of county forestland looking for a marijuana grow. At the time the tornado struck, my wife, Jeanne, and I had just finished supper when the scanner rang out with the news - Siren had been hit hard. We heard the storm pass some three miles south of our home. Heard the roar and waited at the basement door until it passed. As we entered the car to head for town, softball-sized hail, the largest I have ever seen, began to fall. No sense to drive in that, so we waited until it had passed and then headed for Siren.

Based on the radio traffic saying that Siren was gone, I asked dispatch to call for additional ambulance and fire departments from neighboring counties for support. Amazingly, those ambulances stood idle. Law enforcement from Burnett County responded to the emergency. Hearing the news, they came without being called. Dispatchers also responded. They knew how hectic

Firefighters and citizen volunteers such as the group of youths from Herzl Camp (photo at right) at Webster responded to the village of Siren within an hour of the tornado striking.

dispatch would be after such an event.

Driving south into Siren one could see, or maybe not see, what had once stood. Mighty pines and oaks along Crooked Lake were now gone. The roadway was blocked in front of Adventures, but soon cleared, and we made our way into town. What was left of it, anyway. The first order of business was twofold, search and rescue to set up and traffic control. As we all know, nothing brings out a crowd like an event such as this.

At that time I did not know that the tornado had struck anywhere else! It seems like the news of destruction in areas like Daniels, LaFollette and Dewey did not reach me until nearly an hour after the storm. Perhaps it is the history of large windstorms in Siren, the storms of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s that seemed to target Siren; perhaps it was just the fact that the north end of Siren was mostly destroyed. For whatever reason, the first focus was in Siren.

Siren and other fire departments handled search and rescue. The sheriff’s The Pour House in Siren, where a customer hung on to a bar- office began to reroute tender as the bartender flew into the air as the tornado struck. traffic around Siren on Old 35. That soon

changed as word of damage to the towns of Daniels, Siren, LaFollette and Dewey came in. Fire and law enforcement were detailed to check as many homes and cabins as possible and mark what had been checked.

We first met in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen but soon moved the command post to the lot at the grocery store. That was my office for the next week. The work that Burnett County Emergency Government Director Bobbi Sichta did after the storm with assistance from Wisconsin Emergency Management cannot be stated enough. It made my task much easier.

Before midnight Deputy Director Rick Risler of Emergency Police Services was on-scene with the mobile command center. He asked me two questions: how many cops did I want and when did I want them. At 8 a.m. the next morning 50 officers from across Wisconsin were waiting at the command post for instructions. There were three main tasks to start with. The first order of business was a complete search of all dwellings in the area affected by the tornado for people. Teams were dispatched to those areas.

The command post performed a variety of functions in the aftermath of the storm. Officers were assigned to duties like patrol and traffic control. With 24 years of service with the sheriff’s office, I knew that the people of northern Wisconsin would come to help.

I had seen it many times, be it for a forest fire or lost child, they come to help. But the numbers that came after the storm were amazing. They came from not only Wisconsin and Minnesota but from around the country. At the command post we directed them to where they could help. There were also those that came to see, perfectly human, but causing traffic problems.

And there were some of those that came to see what they could get for free, though there were few problems with criminals during that time.

There is no question that the patrol effort deterred crime during the cleanup. All the major television networks were here along with stations from Wisconsin and Minnesota. They occasionally strayed into areas they knew to stay out of and were moved back to the media area at the Lodge.

WCCO missed a morning report because they set up in the wrong area and had to move. We kept the command post up for around a week. The amount of work that was done by volunteers and contractors during that time was incredible.

I maintain that emergency services had the easiest job. Law enforcement, fire and EMS responded in accordance with training. We had specific jobs to do and we knew how to do them. In emergencies these services respond as a team and work together. That’s what happened after the storm. Of them I had the easiest job of all. I didn’t have to stand in the heat and direct traffic at a roadblock while trying to answer questions or in the dust and heat in support of a cleanup crew. I didn’t have to patrol the affected areas. It was not until the next week that I actually got out to see some of the damage. All I had to do was make decisions and give orders.

At the time I had 27 years in law enforcement, including the military, eight years as sheriff, and over three as chief deputy; giving orders came pretty easy.

Looking back, I think that if you asked those officers that responded about their efforts you might get an answer straight from “Dragnet’s” Sgt. Joe Friday, “We’re just doing our job.” At least that’s the way I see it.

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10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

After 8 the storm

by Mary Jacobsen

The tornado left behind a surreal landscape with acres of jagged, denuded trees, huge uprooted oaks and pines, scattered branches, concrete foundations where buildings and houses once stood. Dazed people wandered among their belongings. Clothing, books, frying pans and beds lay strewn over their lawns and their neighbors lawns.

People told of their fears and how they had huddled for safety in a bathroom, cellar or closet. They told of tragedy, bewilderment, loss, and occasionally, of humor.

A neighbor burst into the La Follette Town Hall meeting on June 18, 2001, and announced that a tornado had been sighted in Burnett County, headed our way. My husband, Ed, the town chairman, said, “Meeting’s over.”

As soon as we arrived home, Ed put the car in the garage (not as easy as it sounds), and I picked all the peonies. I didn’t think they’d survive a tornado.

The lights went out.

The aftermath of a tornado is disorder; objects are displaced in space, events are displaced in time. We remember eating cold cereal by candlelight. Was it before or after the tornado hit? Like the 2-inch hailstones hitting our deck, other events dance randomly in my mind. Ed on his radio with “skywatch.” Wind blowing open the front door until I locked it. A candle, a bottle of wine and two glasses on a bedside table. Listening to trees cracking and crashing.

After the tornado left to wreak havoc elsewhere, we surveyed the damage. Fallen trees and branches everywhere, all pathways blocked. But we went to bed that night thankful to be alive, safe and under our own roof.

Our first concern the next morning was how to make coffee. It took a long time for the water to boil on our barbecue grill. But then we weren’t going anywhere. While eating cold cereal, we heard a knock at the door. Impossible! Did someone drop from the sky?

A tall man in a brown uniform stood on our deck.

“How in the world did you get here?”

“It wasn’t easy.”

A policeman showed up, puffing. “It’s tough keeping up with a forest ranger,” he said.

The men had struggled to get through to us by climbing over and crawling under fallen trees and other debris, and they had many more places to check.

That morning, 20 people with chain saws, a bulldozer and a backhoe spent three hours clearing our driveway. Volunteers arrived, the Salvation Army helped. More volunteers, neighbors and friends of neighbors came to help. Tribal members from Hertel brought food and water. Three days later the power was restored.

The telephone rang for the town chairman.

But the town chairman was out coordinating aid groups, checking damaged roads and properties, arranging for government funds, assuring bewildered residents that their claims were being considered. Help was coming.

Some people were impatient. A few were resentful of the focus on Siren when country people too had suffered. But most were extremely grateful for the help, and many came to help.

The tornado cleared a path of destruction, but it also cleared the way for a small apple tree to receive more light. And for us to see the red-gold sunset from our porch.

So much work to be done. So many sunsets to see.

Ray Schulz returned home from the hospital to survey the damage done to his Town of Dewey home where he was injured and his wife, Ruth, was killed. The couple lived in the home for nearly 30 years, Ruth for 41. Their granddaughter from Racine is shown at left. - Photo by Gary King

Mayor’s 7 declaration

by Larry Blahauvietz

“I hereby declare the village of Siren a disaster.”

Those were the words I had to utter at 1 a.m., the morning of June 19, 2001, in order to begin the process of receiving state and FEMA assistance for our village. The extent of the disaster was not fully known at that time, and later exceeded my expectations. The extent of recovery was totally unknown, and as it developed, also exceeded my expectations.

The resilience of the business and residential communities of Siren allowed the village to provide a remarkable recovery, with new homes, new businesses, new streetlights and even new trees!

Now, 10 years later, we can look at the tornado disaster and confidently state “Siren is back!”

Still standing, this tree (photo at left) lost most of its branches in the 2001 tornado. Below, hundreds of people took part in a walking tour of the village of Siren the morning after the tornado struck. - Photos submitted

10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

“It looked like a T-rex came through Siren”

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- Siren student, describing the tornado in an essay

Ben Anderson of Frederic toured the remains of the hockey rink in Siren with his father, Dean. “I broke two records in here,” Ben, a sixth-grader at the time, told Leader reporter Nancy Jappe, with tears in his eyes. “This is for the kids so it has to be rebuilt,” Dean said. “We did it once and we can do it again.” Almost immediately the Burnett Youth Hockey Association, with fundraisers and other donations, began the effort to build a new rink, shown below. - Photo above by Nancy Jappe - aerial photo of destroyed rink (lower left) courtesy of DNR- aerial photo below of the hockey rink today by Carl Heidel

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10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

F3 tornado: 158 to 208 mph winds

The Timbers Theatre and Shops at The Lodge took a huge hit in the 2001 tornado. Ten years later (photos below) the scene is quite different. - Photos above courtesy DNR pilot Joe Sprenger.

Photo below by Carl Heidel with pilot Ernie Swanson

Just a few tales of survival ...

Walkin’ man: The late Jens Rasmussen, a 90-something Siren legend who could be seen walking to the grocery store or local restaurants several times a day, in all types of weather, lives less than a block from Siren Covenant Church. Rasmussen was home when the storm hit. The lights went out and he went to bed, in his second-floor bedroom. Dr. John Ingalls, Webster, is Rasmussen’s grandson. As soon as Ingalls got to Siren to volunteer his services, he went to check on Jens, finding him sound asleep, safe and totally unaware of the devastation that was going on around him.

••• Holding on: Greg Hunter, owner of the Pour House, a well-known Siren business, was at his home south and east of the village when the tornado struck.

Hunter, a volunteer firefighter, heard the paging call and came into town in his role as firefighter, not realizing that his business had been one of those that was hit. Staff members and customers at the Pour House went into two walk-in coolers when the tornado hit.

None were hit, but bartender Chris Cormell escaped injury by holding onto customer Clark Jewell’s leg, going airborne as the cooler that sheltered him exploded.

A real DQ blizzard: In case of severe storm, the owners of the Siren Dairy Queen, a new business that the Boyer family had opened earlier in 2001, were advised to take shelter in the freezer. For some reason, they headed for the refrigerator instead. The freezer was history after the tornado struck; the refrigerator and its occupants were intact and unharmed. “We can rebuild. Nobody was hurt,” said Kara (Boyer) Alden, one of the owners. Her brother, Kent Boyer, didn’t quite make it into the refrigerator. He was able to escape injury by hanging onto the door.

Why me?: On the morning after the tornado, Joe and Terri Simon were surrounded by friends and family who were helping the family after their home on Church Street outside of Falun was basically destroyed by the tornado that hit the Burnett County area Monday night. While surveying the damage to her house, Terri paused and said, “Sometimes you just have to say ‘Why me?’” Terri remembers sitting in the living room of their house watching the storm roll in and then suddenly realizing the seriousness of the situation. She told her kids, “Hit the basement!”

She said that the family made it into their basement seconds before the tornado ripped through their house. She wasn’t sure of the time because their power had been going on and off for a while, but she

The home of the Rick Peterson family in the town of Dewey was completely blown away by the tornado. He and his wife and eight children scrambled to get into a root cellar that had recently been constructed as they heard the tornado approach. Peterson said they experienced the “calm before the storm,” and green sky before hearing the wind. - Photo by Gary King

guessed that it was around 8:15 p.m. When they finally came upstairs, all four walls of the house were gone and their belongings had been strewn all over their property. The garage that once stood next to the house was completely gone and pieces of it were scattered throughout a field behind the house. All three of their vehicles received damage and the family was waiting to hear from their insurance agency. A chicken coop behind the house was also missing, although most of the chickens were wandering around the yard. The family’s two dogs had been outside

during the storm and one was found afterward tangled up in its chain in a tree near the house. Angie Campeau, a friend of the family, said that she had gotten to the house early the next morning to help however she could. She began by searching for important pictures and papers that were blown all over the property. She said, “We don’t even really know where to start.” - Nancy Jappe, reprinted from June 20, 2001 InterCounty Leader

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10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

“We can and will recover ...”

by Bobbi Sichta

I’ve been the emergency management director for Burnett County since 1990. Over those years, I have taken many classes, written many plans, participated in many exercises and networked with hundreds of people. But nothing teaches you more about disaster response and recovery than an actual event!

We tend to focus so much attention on the response phase of a disaster, which occurs immediately following an event and lasts a relatively short time. What follows, however, is the recovery period, which can be slow, complicated, painful and may last years. During this time, we focus on the healing, the rebuilding, the coordination of resources, volunteer Bobbi Sichta management, donation management, debris removal and so much more.

The first 12 hours following the storm, most of our focus was on search and rescue. Protecting life is always the top priority. Dawn on June 19, 2001, ushered in an enormous challenge. How to manage the recovery? We soon discovered that the damaged area was much greater than initially thought, and there were many people who were now homeless, hundreds of damaged and destroyed buildings, and miles of blocked roads. The emergency operations center was already handling hundreds of calls from volunteers, individuals and companies wanting to donate, family members looking for friends or loved ones, news media, government agencies, etc. A shelter was opened at Siren Schools, and meal preparation began. A donation site was established and workers began the task of sorting through donations.

The need was great, volunteers were starting to arrive, the donations were flooding in, government agencies, churches, and private agencies were on

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their way, and the main priority was to ensure that recovery efforts were unified and coordinated.

I was privileged to work with a group of people who were dedicated to making our community’s recovery proceed as smoothly as possible. I saw a community that, under enormous strain and fatigue, pulled together over the months following the tornado to strengthen and refocus their energy on recuperation and rebuilding. Was the road to recovery always smooth? Of course not! There were bumps and an occasional crater to overcome along the way.

But one fact remained constant throughout, and that was the will to recover, the community sense of selfreliance, and the strength to get the job done.

The thousands of people and hundreds of businesses and organizations who came to help supported our recovery in tangible and inspiring ways. I remember being amazed at the hundreds of volunteers lining up outside the government center to sign

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up for any job we would assign them, without question and without complaint. It was our job to make sure they remained safe and healthy, including providing food, water, sunscreen, bug spray and medical attention.

A lot of things we learned and implemented during the recovery have been replicated in other locations in Wisconsin, such as our long-term recovery project, the partnership of the DNR and local government in volunteer management, debris management, and daily planning meetings for all local government sections to ensure that each community’s needs were met.

Because of the lessons learned in 2001, we are much better prepared in this county. Changes have been made in plans and training based on our experiences.

We have learned that we may not be able to prevent every disaster, but we can, and will, recover.

Following the 2001 tornado, people wanting to help showed up at the Burnett County Government Center to sign up for any job they were assigned. - Photo by Nancy Jappe

“Thank God for these people ...”

Reprinted from June 27, 2001 Inter-County Leader

Elliot and Allene Peterson stood outside their demolished home, hugged each other and cried as they attempted to describe their emotions.

“I’ve been crying all day,” Allene said. “Not for my loss, but for these people. Thank God for them.”

A crew of workers from Maxwell Heating in Luck had been working all morning to help the couple clear away debris from their home which sits isolated at the end of a half-mile-long driveway.

A crew from the DNR was also there as well as others. The crew anxiously awaited a delivery of food from the St. Croix Tribe at Hertel, which had been serving food to volunteers and victims since Tuesday.

“This is unbelievably wonderful,” Elliot said.

The family’s Town of Dewey home is located within a few miles of where three people lost their lives early Monday evening, June 18, when an F3 tornado cut a half-mile-wide swath through southern Burnett County. The entire Town of Dewey, just southeast of Hertel, was hit hard. Among those killed was Sylvan Stellrecht, a friend of the Petersons and neighbors Tom Haseltine and Rose Schultz. Farmer Glenn Albee of rural Shell Lake had his cattle pastured in the area and lost 35 head.

The couple’s son, also named Elliot, said the family had survived hurricanes in Maine and an earthquake in Alaska,

Allene and Elliot Peterson (on either side of volunteer with chain saw) are shown with a crew of volunteers at their Town of Dewey home.

- Photo by Gary King

and now this. The house was without a roof and belongings had been blown away.

The Peterson home is considered a total loss. Half of the upper story is gone. The concrete block basement is full of cracks and the blocks are caving inward.

“It helps to have a sense of humor about it all,” son Elliot noted. “I tell people we don’t have any popcorn, but you can have all the movies you can find.”

“I think we should have a yard sale on that side of the house,” Allene said, pointing to where most of their belongings ended up.

Allene said that she and her husband had written out checks to the Red Cross in the past after seeing tragedies on the news. Even though they never expected anything in return, they are now bene-

ficiaries of the organization. The Red Cross visited them Wednesday evening and checked on Allene’s blood pressure.

Downed trees shut off the Petersons from visitors, but Elliot said the head of the Webb Lake Fire Department crawled over and under a mile of downed trees to reach them just hours after the storm.

They asked me if we wanted out and I said, “No, we’re just going to bed,” Peterson said. He said they were later reached by a neighbor and then the DNR, which cleared their driveway the next day.

The Petersons have two daughters, one in Colorado and one in California, who were informed by phone of the tragedy.

A day later, a tornado warning was issued near the home of the daughter in

Colorado, Deb Carlson.

“We stayed on the telephone until it had passed approximately two hours later,“ noted Kat Peterson, the daughter in California. “If she was going to go through it, I was going to go through it with her. Thankfully, we were spared episode two.”

Kat added she was thankful for all the volunteers, which included the DNR, St. Croix Tribal Council, Red Cross, Wesleyan Church, sheriff’s departments from various counties, many other volunteers and neighbors.

“Unfortunately, we lost a wonderful friend and neighbor, Sylvan Stellrecht,” Kat said. “ He was a good neighbor, an excellent friend and my mom’s hunting buddy. He will be greatly missed.” Gary King

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A gift from the tornado

10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

- reprinted from Aug. 1, 2001 Inter-County Leader Gilbert Wald, who lives north of Cable, about 80 miles from here, had a gift for Dave and Janis Wegner. The gift was an 8 x 10 picture of the Wegners’ oldest son, Wesley, when he was in the sixth grade at Siren Elementary School.

What made this gift unique was that Wald found the picture in his driveway soon after the June 18 tornado hit and destroyed the Wegners’ two-story home and Dave’s nearby cabinet shop.

When the Wegners last saw the picture, it was in a frame on their piano, stacked behind Wes’ picture from the 2000-2001 school year. Wes’ name was on the back, no address, just his name and the school year when the picture was taken.

Being pretty sure that the picture came in on the tornado winds, Wald turned to the “W” section in the phone book. With only two Wegners, Wegner with an “e,” in Siren, he picked the right number to dial on the first try.

“Do you have a son, Wesley?” he asked Dave. When the answer was yes, Wald told Dave he had the picture.

Dave figured that Wald would like to meet the family; but with all that was happening and the replacement of his livelihood (the shop) foremost in his mind, there was no time to make the trip to Cable.

One day, about a month after the tornado, Wald showed up to hand-deliver the picture to its owners. None of the other school pictures that were on the piano have been found; and this was the only picture that made its way into Wald’s driveway.

The Wegners lost 75 percent of their possessions during the tornado, which destroyed the home they built and finished six years prior to the 2001 tornado, and Dave’s shop, which he moved there after a fire destroyed his Siren trailer-park location. No traces of their refrigerator, three love seats or a couch have been found. “I would recognize the refrigerator because of the pictures on the front,” Dave commented.

Janis Wegner holds the picture of her son Wesley that was taken during the 1999-2000 school year. The picture, underneath the current year’s photo in a frame on the Wegners’ piano, was picked up by the June 18, 2001 tornado winds and deposited 80 miles away, in a driveway north of Cable. The man who found it, Gilbert Wald, returned the picture. Shown here with Janis, sitting on the edge of the basement where once their house stood are (L to R) husband Dave and sons Isaac and Josiah. - Photo by Nancy Jappe

What is more amazing to him is that no trace, not even parts, have been found of the solid oak staircase he had built for the house. “It was a massive set of oak stairs,” he said.

Looking at pictures of the destruction on the property, including the crumbled wall of the basement where Dave and two others took shelter from the tornado, one wonders how anyone survived without injury that memorable night in June. Yet three people did.

The Wegners’ daughter, Natalie, was at Wisconsin Dells that Monday. Dave, Janis and their three sons, Wes, Isaac and Josiah, went to a hockey game in Spooner. Janis left for the Dells with the boys right after the game, and Dave came back to Siren.

On the way home, he stopped at a small house that he and Roy Ward own.

The two were remodeling the house, and Roy was there with his girlfriend, Krissa, and sister, Lori. The radio was on, and Dave heard the tornado warn-

“Troops on the ground”: amateur radio operators played a key role

by Ed Jacobson

District Emergency Coordinator for RACES In the early hours of June 18, 2001, the National Weather Service issued a severe weather warning with the possibility of producing tornadoes. Sixteen hours later a tornado hit Siren.

During those 16 hours members of the local amateur radio group NorWesCo Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services, who were contacted by the NWS in Duluth, watched the sky.

When they sighted the tornado as it crossed the St. Croix River, they used their handheld radios to radio the NWS. The NWS is good at predicting which storms might produce tornadoes but their Doppler radar system sees only the top of the storm. They need the “troops on the ground,” like the NorWesCo storm spotters, to tell them when and where an actual tornado has been sighted.

After our tornado had dissipated, the

work of NorWesCo RACES took another form. They went to the emergency operations center commanded

by Bobbi Sichta, emergency management director for Burnett County. They provided communication across the various services—Salvation Army, Red Cross, DNR, power company, fire ...

NorWesCo RACES, supplemented by outside mutual aid, provided 66 radio operators for Skywarn and the EOC. Carol Christenson, warning coordinator meteorologist for the NWS in Duluth, quoted from the NWS Web site, “The National Weather Service works closely with the local law enforcement, SKYWARN, and ham radio networks, to reduce the loss of life and property during severe weather. It was this cooperation that helped us to reduce the loss of life with this tornado.”

But you don’t have to be a ham radio operator to receive weather alerts. You need only to invest in a weather radio and keep it on. Be weather safe.

ing, a warning and not a watch. He asked if the three wanted to go on to his house. Roy and Krissa went with him; Lori headed back to town.

The television at home was on for less than a minute when the power went out. This was 8:20 p.m. Dave walked outside on a couple of occasions, looking at the sky. The phone rang. Dave answered, thinking it might be Siren Police Chief Dean Roland calling to warn them, as he has done in the past. It was one of his employees, Eric McKinley, who lives over toward Grantsburg. “You need to get in the basement. I saw a tornado,” McKinley said.

Dave hung up and walked outside.

He could see low clouds streaking in from someplace. When they got to the top of the trees, he lost track of them and couldn’t see where they were going. “I’ve never seen that before,” he said. He grabbed a candle and three pillows; and he, Roy and Krissa went into the basement.

Because of the location of their property overlooking Little Doctors Lake, Dave had thought about where would be a safe place to go in case of high winds. His focus had zeroed in on a 5foot by 12-foot table in the basement, with a kneehole in the center and overhang on each end. “I recall telling (Roy and Krissa) we should get underneath,” Dave said. Just about that time, their ears popped.

The three crawled under the table, Roy and Krissa in the kneehole and

Dave on the right corner.

“I don’t think we were under that table even one minute,” Dave said. “I heard the window blow, not just glass breaking but the huge noise of ‘whoosh.’ The house began to creak as the winds hit it. I never heard a train; or if there was that sound, I don’t remember. I could hear the sound of wood breaking and something breaking loose.”

He could see the floor joists move and the cement wall opposite them collapse into the basement. He could see daylight because the house had just disappeared. Hail as big as a fist and water were pouring into the basement.

The center floor beam fell down on the table the three were under, causing the table to shift.

“I never felt scared or worried for our safety (until then),” Dave said. “I thought we were going to be trapped, with the house gone and things coming down on us.” He added, “Not knowing where the house was, was unsettling.”

From the time the first window blew in until the time the beam hit the table was 45 seconds.

Dave waited until the sound of air moving had stopped, then he called over to make sure Roy and Krissa were OK, before stepping on the table and shelving to crawl out of the basement.

He felt awestruck, seeing things scattered all over the place when five minutes before, there had been perfect order. The sense of personal loss hadn’t hit yet. It wouldn’t, until about 12:30 or 1:30 a.m.

With the tornado putting him about six weeks behind in his cabinetry work, one of Dave’s priorities was getting the shop back up and running. First thing the next morning, he called Brad Peterson, Peterson Construction, Webster, who brought almost his entire crew over to clean up the area and start work on a new shop.

The biggest loss in the shop was a set of tables Dave was making for the expansion of the Pour House, a Siren business that, too, was totally destroyed by the tornado. Other than that, because he had been working on an outside job, Dave didn’t have a lot of projects going on in the shop.

Built just like the old shop but a bit larger, the new Wegner Cabinetry building is nearly finished, with machinery to go back in the week of August 6. The next big job to be tackled is replacement of the house.

Although they lost so much by way of personal possessions, the mood at the Wegners is positive. “It could have been worse. I could have been a widow,” Janis commented. - Nancy Jappe

Landmark lost

The old Siren Hotel on Main Street was razed following the 2001 tornado, after sustained extensive damage. - Photo by Nancy Jappe

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10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

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Paying it forward: A trip to Wadena Twenty-one people from the Siren area, under the direction of Pastor Steve Ward and Siren High School Food Service Manager Deb Jaskolka, traveled four hours each way to Wadena, Minn., Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2010, to serve a meal to people in the area affected by a June 17, 2010, F4 tornado.

The purpose of the trip was to pass on a gesture made by 24 people from Comfrey, Minn., who brought a meal, good cheer and encouragement to Siren-area residents following the Siren tornado June 18, 2001.

The Comfrey group visited Burnett County three months after a tornado. The people from Comfrey knew how important it is to hear from other tornado survivors following such a difficult time. Seventyfive percent of their town was destroyed by a tornado in 1998. The people there received enough money in donations that they set aside some for other uses. One of them was sharing with people who had a similar experience.

People in Burnett County, after the tornado, vowed to do the same. And they kept their promise - twice - once when a tornado struck in Ladysmith and again in 2010 when the Wadena tornado occurred. - with information from stories by Nancy Jappe

Wadena’s water tower (photo above, left), on the east side of the city, showed no damage from the tornado but on the west side the storm destroyed the high school and the community center, taking down trees in the cemetery and destroying or seriously damaging homes in a stretch of that area. - Photo of water tower by Nancy Jappe - photo of tornado by discovery.com

Kitchen helpers who traveled nearly four hours each way to bring a meal to the people in the tornado-stricken area of Wadena, Minn., in August of 2010 are shown here (L to R): Deb Jaskolka, Heather Marth, Sharon Richison, Cheryl Turnbull and Barb Holcomb. A total of 21 people from the Siren area made the trip, bringing food, workers and positive thought to those coping with the effects of a destructive summer storm.

- Photos by Nancy Jappe

One of the houses in the tornado-stricken area of Wadena, Minn. in August of 2010, a community of 4,200 people that was hit by a tornado in June of that year. A home owned by Pastor Gary Rokenbrodt, who was the new pastor at Clam Falls and Zion Lutheran, Bone Lake, was one of those destroyed by this tornado.

Sign language

File photos and submitted The 2001 tornado produced signs of determination and even humor - and several that were blown away. At left, Pat Cremin of rural Siren holds up part of the original sign of the Inter-County Leader’s Siren office, found recently in woods about 100 yards from his house. It was lying face-down and covered with leaves and debris. “It was surprisingly well preserved after a 10-mile flight and nine years of waiting to be discovered,” Cremin noted.

Also found were cups and cones from the Dairy Queen and steel siding which may have come from the original hockey rink, along with other odds and ends. “Our house was severely damaged in the tornado,” Cremin said. “I am still picking shards of glass out of the interior of our log home. Our forest is recovering well - finally. We are still harvesting firewood from trees downed in the tornado.” Cremin said the financial and emotional impact of the 2001 tornado “will be with us for a lifetime,” and that he’s forever indebted to the hundreds of volunteers that helped with the survival, repair and cleanup efforts. “God bless you all,” he noted.

“You helped restore my faith in humanity when I needed it the most.” - Photo submitted

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10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

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Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble.”

by Pastor Steve Ward

As I look back with the advantage of 10 years behind us, I could ask myself, “Where was God when this tornado struck?”

Instead I ask, “Where is it that God wasn’t?”

In life we can always look back and can see God’s hand at work even if we didn’t realize it at the time.

I saw God at work as I worked with many people I know that God put in place to help with the emergency crisis and relief after the tornado.

God was there long before the storm, as our police Chief Dean Roland went around trying to warn people that a storm was coming. God was there as people took shelter.

God was there as Phil Stromberg, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources forest ranger from Webster, used a plan the night of the tornado that he had developed to help firefighters get to fires in an emergency. That plan proved critical as the DNR stepped in to help right from the beginning, and in the weeks after, cutting and brushing many of the trees that the tornado blew over. Many trees had to be cut the night of the storm to help emergency people get to trapped victims, as well as electrical people to get through the debris to help restore the power with the many downed power lines.

God was there when Burnett County Emergency Management Director Bobbi Sichta coordinated the overall recovery

“Where was God?”

effort.

God was there when the Siren community passed a building project for a new elementary school, cafeteria and school auditorium. This facility was used after the tornado as a shelter for people whose homes were lost or damaged. The cafeteria was used to feed the people and many volunteers who came to help our town. It was also a gathering place for people to come and share their stories. Red Cross, Salvation Army, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and social services all set up there to be in one place for people who were affected by the tornado, so they could come and get help. The auditorium was used to hold a community prayer service for people to gather together and pray and share their stories.

How wonderful that we could come together ecumenically as God’s people!

God was there when the school administration and staff answered the call to the community’s great need at a time of crisis. God was there many years ago, when the school district hired Debbie Jaskolka to run the school kitchen. After the tornado, she gave countless hours of her own time to coordinate the volunteer effort to keep people fed. Other school staff pitched in and helped God was there when the St. Croix Tribe responded and wanted to share in the recovery. God was there and continued his blessing as many organizations and volunteers from all over came to work. Some offered prayer and financial support. God was there to help by sending the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Christian Aid Ministry, United Methodist Volunteers In Missions, Church of the Brethren and Lutheran Social Services.

These church organizations, as well as many other people, all worked together to share God’s love, by helping God’s

A newlywed couple’s home east of Siren was destroyed by the tornado. - Photo by Gary King

More than 60 grade-school-aged children and camp counselors waited out the tornado in the basement of the Camp Ojibway chapel on Mudhen Lake the evening of June 18, 2001.

- Photo by Jill Hoel people.

God was there with Project Recovery and the Community Interfaith Connection.

God worked with these people as the community and whole area continued to heal and to rebuild. How nice that the community, churches , schools, chamber of commerce, village employees and government agencies all worked together. People who provided disaster relief all over the country commented how nice it was to see how we all worked together.

Where was God? God was before us getting this great group of people ready.

God is beside us to guide and comfort us. God is there in the future saying, “We can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength.” (Philippians 4:13) I thank God for having given us hope, strength, and comfort during that time.

I thank God for all of the special people who came to help and have left their footprints on our hearts forever as they shared their love with us.

God bless you all, Pastor Steve Ward, First Baptist Church, Falun

10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

Before & after

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The Pour House, owned for years by Bill and Jan Hunter, is shown the morning of June 19, 2001. The Hunters rebuilt their business at the same Hwy. 35 location, below. - Photo above by Gary King, photo below by Carl Heidel

These aerial photos (above and below), taken a decade apart, tell a story of progress in rebuilding in the village of Siren. - Photo above courtesy DNR, photo below by Carl Heidel with pilot Ernie Swanson

The north end of Siren was in the direct path of the tornado. Then-Gov. Scott McCallum viewed the damaged areas via helicopter and declared a state of emergency. The village received a state grant of $500,000 and Burnett and Washburn counties received $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Labor to help rebuild. - Photo above by Robert Holmes, photo below by Carl Heidel

Just one year after the tornado, the village of Siren was well into its rebuilding and recovery as shown by these photos taken of Works Progress Street. - Photos by Gary King

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10 10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

Irreplaceable loss

Reprinted from June 20, 2001 Inter-County Leader

For years to come folks will pause on June 18 to remember how the abrupt tornado tore up a pretty little town and countryside and upended thousands of lives. Eventually, all but three of our area’s perseverant inhabitants will have bounced back with reconstructed businesses, homes and lives. But the grave markers of Rose Schultz, Tom Haseltine and Sylvan Stellrecht will forever bear the date June 18, 2001, when an unannounced and unfeeling winds took their lives. All three lived within a two-mile radius in the Hertel area.

According to authorities, 80-year-old Ruth Schultz was at home playing cards with her husband, Ray, 75, and 53-year-old son Lenny Pfundheller when the storm alert came over a police scanner.

As the three attempted to take shelter in the basement, the tornado bore down without warning on the house. Ruth had just made it to the top of the stairs when the walls collapsed and flying debris sent her into a countertop. She died of blunt injuries to her chest and abdomen.

Sylvan Stellrecht, 77, was alone at his home on Spaulding Road near Poquette Lake when the destruction came.

“No one knows exactly what happened,” his niece, Peggy Gabrielson, said. Son-in-law Allen Melton found Stellrecht outside in the yard, and according to Burnett County Medical Examiner Pat Taylor, his death was caused by head trauma and neck injuries. Gabrielson said Sylvan’s wife, Shirley, was at her mother’s home in Shell Lake Monday afternoon and returned home to cook Sylvan’s dinner. Her mother called her back into town that evening, where she was when the tornado struck.

At her mother’s birthday party Sunday, the day after her husband’s funeral, Shirley said “I’d like to thank my mother for saving my life, because if she hadn’t asked me to come back into town, I would have perished with Sylvan.” The Stellrecht’s home was destroyed, and their daughter Julie Melton’s and son Ron Stellrecht’s nearby homes were also hit.

Tom Haseltine, 60, survived the actual storm Monday in his Poquette Lake home with his wife, Carol. According to Carol, Tom saw that his brother Lyle’s place across the lake had been hit, and he set out on a four-wheeler to survey the damage. On his way, he caught a guy wire in the chest, throwing him from the four-wheeler and causing his death. - Katie Blake

A memorial for the Town of Dewey, to remember the three persons who lost their lives in the June 18, 2001 tornado was unveiled in June of 2002. Those losing their lives were Tom Haseltine, Ruth Schultz and Sylvan Stellrecht. The memorial would incorporate the bell from the McCarty School, later used as the town hall. The bell, purchased from Montgomery Ward in 1903 for $7.50, was the only thing that survived when the tornado destroyed the rest of the building. - Photo by Nancy Jappe

This is part of a giant mural painting of sunflowers that sprung up everywhere following the tornado, unveiled during the observance of the six-month anniversary of the tornado Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2001, at Siren School. The artwork was done by Brianna Rucinski and 19 of her classmates at Siren School “The painting shows a rebirth, that something beautiful can come out of destruction.

The sunflowers are something beautiful that came out of the tornado,” Brianna said. - Photo by Nancy Jappe

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More of Us

Things we say shall float away

Tributes and reminders

But print shall freeze a thought This is but a humble way to say Human spirit can not be fought

All you folks who came to help Share a special bond You must know the gratitude we felt It gives us the strength to carry on

The awesome power that swelled within From friends and people we met Surpassed the fury of the storm And we shall not forget Precious family ever so strong Helped as we knew they would Then it wasn’t very long When friends did what they could

Frozen in time, a metal fishing boat that was twisted by the tornado was created into a shrine of sorts by Rudy Mothes of Siren. On the other side of Siren, a memorial in Crooked Lake Park is a reminder of the lives lost and destruction to homes and families in the wake of the storm. - Photos by Nancy Jappe

The e-edition of this publication can be found at www.the-leader.net. It includes all photos in color and extra pages of photos from the 2001 tornado.

Strangers came to lend a hand In cars and trucks and bus They restored our faith in man Despair won’t conquer us

This world bombarded by heinous crimes Committed by heartless men May be a sign of the times But there are more of us than them.

- V.L. Haseltine on behalf of all survivors of the June 18, 2001 tornado

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

June 18, 2001 tornado

Combine on truck in Town of Dewey

Flattened trees in the town of LaFollette

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

Siren on the night of the tornado

Gas station in Sirein

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

June 18, 2001 tornado Siren Dairy Queen

Mudhen Lake home

Town of Dewey

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

The cleanup begins

Shoreline at Mudhen

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

June 18, 2001 tornado

PAGE 20 - WASHBURN COUNTY REGISTER - MARCH 30, 2011

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado

10 stories of courage, hope and survival • 10-year anniversary of 2001 tornado